Sermon 9. The Gospel Sign Addressed to Faith

"Then certain of the Scribes and of the Pharisees answered,
saying, Master, we would see a Sign from Thee." Matt. xii. 38.

[Note] {105} THESE Scribes and Pharisees,
though Christ had wrought among them "works which none other man
did," and, as one of their own company confessed, no man could do
miracles such as His "except God were with him," persisted in
asking for some decisive Sign, which would prove His Divinity beyond all
question. In His reply, our Lord denied and yet promised such a sign. He
says, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign;
there shall no sign be given to it, but the Sign of the Prophet
Jonas." In this sentence it is implied, both that their wishes were
not to be granted, yet that a great miracle was to be wrought.

On a second occasion they asked again, Sadducees as well as
Pharisees: they "came, and tempting, desired Him that He would show
them a sign from heaven." Joshua had stopped the sun and moon
"in the sight of {106} Israel;" Samuel had brought thunder at
harvest time; they asked for a similar miracle. They asked for a sign
from heaven; He answered still by promising a Sign from the earth,—a
Sign like his, who was "three days and three nights in the whale's
belly." A Sign was to be wrought and was to disappoint them: it was
to be a Sign, but not to them; hence our Lord says in the parallel
passage in St. Mark, "Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be
given to this generation." [Matt. xvi. 1. Mark viii. 12.]

In an earlier part of His ministry, the same question had been asked,
and the same answer given under a different image. The Jews "said
unto Him, What sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these
things?" He in like manner answers; "Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up." [John ii. 19.] They
misunderstood Him, and He did not set them right. For they were to see,
and see not; they were not to witness the Sign then, nor were they
allowed to apprehend His language now. He spoke of the resurrection of
His body, and they were not at that season to see Him whom they had
pierced.

Now what is remarkable in this passage is this, that our Lord
promised a great sign parallel to those wrought by the old prophets; yet
instead of being public as theirs was, it was in the event, like
Jonah's, a secret sign. Few saw it; it was to be received by all, but on
faith; it was addressed to the humble and lowly. When it took place, and
St. Thomas refused to believe without sight, our Lord said to him,
"Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed are
they {107} that have not seen, and yet have believed." The Apostle,
perhaps, might have been arguing, "If this be the Lord's great
Sign, surely it is to be seen. What is meant by the resurrection but an
evidence which is to be addressed to my senses? I have to believe, and
this is to assure my belief." Yet St. Thomas would have been more
blessed, had he believed Christ's miraculous Presence without seeing it;
and our Lord implied that such persons there would be.

Now what makes this a subject of interest to us is, that our Lord
does expressly promise all Christians a certain gracious manifestation
of Himself, which it is natural, at first sight, to suppose a sensible
one: and many persons understand it to be such, as if it were not more
blessed to believe than to see. Our Lord says; "He that hath My
commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that
loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest Myself to him." When Jude asked Him, "Lord, how is it
that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?"
our Lord answered, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My
Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with
him." [John xiv. 21-23.] In accordance with this promise, St. Paul
says, "The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we
are the children of God;" and St. John, "He that believeth on
the Son of God hath the witness in himself."

Now, that this great gift, whatever it be, is of a nature to impart
illumination, sanctity, and peace, to {108} the soul to which it comes, far
from disputing, I would earnestly maintain. And, in this indirect way,
doubtless, it is in a certain sense apprehended and perceived; perceived
in its effects, with a consciousness that those effects cannot come of
themselves, but imply a gift from which they come, and a presence of
which they are, as it were, the shadow, a voice of which they are the
echo. But there are persons who desire the inward manifestation of
Christ to be much more sensible than this. They will not be contented
without some sensible sign and direct evidence that God loves them; some
assurance, in which faith has no part, that God has chosen them; and
which may answer to their anticipations of what Scripture calls
"the secret of the Lord," and "that hidden manna"
which Christ invites us to partake. Some men, for instance, hold that
their conscience would have no peace, unless they recollected the time
when they were converted from darkness to light, from a state of wrath
to the kingdom of God. Others consider, that in order to possess the
seal of election, they must be able to discern in themselves certain
feelings or frames of mind, a renunciation of their own merit, and an
apprehension of gospel salvation; as if it were not enough to renounce
ourselves and follow Christ, without the lively consciousness that we
are doing so; and that in this lies "the secret of the Lord."
Others go further; and think that without a distinct inward assurance of
his salvation, a man is not in a saving state. This is what men often
conceive; not considering that whatever be the manifestation promised to
Christians by our Lord, it is not likely to be more sensible and more
intelligible than the {109} great sign of His own Resurrection. Yet even that,
like the miracle wrought upon Jonah, was in secret, and they who
believed without seeing it were more blessed than those who saw.

All this accords with what is told us about particular Divine
manifestations in other parts of Scripture. The Saints reflected on them
afterwards, and mastered them, but can hardly be considered as sensible
of them at the very time. Thus Jacob, after the vision, says;
"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." Manoah
said to his wife, after the Angel had departed, "We shall surely
die, because we have seen God." Gideon in like circumstances said,
"Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an Angel of the Lord
face to face." And St. Peter, while the Angel was delivering him
out of prison, though he obeyed him, yet "wist not that it was true
which was done by the Angel, but thought he saw a vision;" but
"when he was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety that
the Lord hath sent His Angel." [Gen. xxviii. 16. Judg. xiii. 22;
vi. 22. Acts xii. 9, 11.]

Let no one think it strange to say, that God may be holding communion
with us without our knowing it. Do not all good thoughts come from Him?
Yet are we sensible that they so come? Can we tell how they come? We
commonly speak of being influenced by God's grace, and resisting His
grace; this implies a certain awful intercourse between the soul and
God; yet who will say that he himself can tell in particular instances
when God moves him, and when he is responding this way or {110} that? It is
one thing, then, to receive impressions, another to reflect upon them
and to be conscious of them. God may manifest Himself to us, and that to
the increase of our comfort, and yet we not realize that He does so.

But now to proceed; for there is more information given us on the
subject. There was another occasion on which the Jews asked for a sign,
and on which our Lord answered by promising one, not to His Apostles
only, but in continuance, like the manifestation He speaks of, to all
His faithful followers. And it was a sign not more sensible or palpable,
not less the object of faith as regards the many, than that sign of His
resurrection which He gave once for all. He had just before been feeding
five thousand men with five barley loaves and two small fishes; when,
not contented with this, the Jews said, "What sign showest Thou,
that we may see and believe Thee? What dost Thou work?" and
they proceeded to refer to the "sign from heaven," which Moses
had given them. "Our Fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is
written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." It was a little
thing, they seemed to say, to multiply bread, but it was a great thing
to send down bread from heaven,—a great thing, when the nature of the
creature was changed, and men were made to live by the word of the Lord.
Was the Son of man able to give them bread such as this? Yes, surely, He
had a Sign,—a Sign from heaven, more wonderful, a fearful Sign,
surpassing thought and surpassing sight too, addressed to faith only,
but not the less true because it was hidden. Moses gave their {111} fathers
bread from heaven; they saw it, ate it, and were dead; His sign was
greater. He was Himself the Bread from heaven under the Gospel, and the
Bread of life. He took not of the creature to satisfy their need, but He
gave Himself for the life of the world. "Moses gave you not that
bread from heaven; but My Father giveth you the True Bread from heaven,
for the Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life
unto the world. I am the Bread of Life. This is the Bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die." Now I am
not led to speak here of that special ordinance in which His Divine
announcement is fulfilled; this would be foreign to my present purpose.
I do but wish to consider the gift in itself, and the sign in itself, as
these words describe it. It is a sign greater than manna, yet beyond
dispute, as the passage itself shows, a sign not addressed to sight, but
to faith. For our Lord speaks of our "coming to Him," and
"believing on Him;" and He says that "it is the Spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing;" and He warns us,
"No one can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw
him." His coming up from the heart of the earth was a sign for
faith, not for sight; and such is His coming down from heaven as Bread.

I have been speaking of the signs which He Himself promised; but
others were announced concerning Him by His servants, and these, let it
be observed, are secret also, and addressed to faith. The Prophet Isaiah
was commissioned to promise Ahaz a sign; "Ask thee a sign of the
Lord thy God," he says, "ask it either in {112} the depth or in the
height above." When Ahaz would not speak, the Prophet proceeded:
"The Lord Himself shall give you a Sign; behold, a Virgin shall
conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." [Isa.
vii. 11, 14.] Yet could there be a Sign more secret, less exposed to the
senses, less addressed to the reason, than the Conception of Christ? It
was a miracle, yet not an evidence.

And so again, when our Lord was born, the Angel gave the Shepherds a
Sign; but which was the greater evidence, the Angel himself, and the
multitude of the heavenly host, or the Sign itself which he sent them to
see? "This shall be a Sign unto you," he said, "Ye shall
see the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Was
this an evidence of greatness or of meanness? Did it prove Him to be
God, or was it a trial of faith?

And so again, though it is not called a sign, yet it had been
published in the manner of a sign, that the Lord should suddenly come to
His Temple, even the "Messenger of the Covenant," that
"the glory of the latter house should be greater than that of the
former," and that God would "glorify the house of His
glory." But how did He come to fulfil these prophecies? As an
infant in arms, recognized by one or two holy persons, and that by means
of faith, without pomp, or display of greatness. Simeon held in his
hands the immaculate form of the Saviour of men, the Light and Life of
the world, the all-holy and incorruptible Presence which the Angels of
God worship; yet in what an outward {113} appearance! Yet still he said
undoubtingly, "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation; a light to
lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel."

What is true in these instances, is true of all the parts of our
Lord's gracious economy. He was "manifested in the flesh; justified
in the Spirit; seen of Angels; preached unto the Gentiles; believed on
in the world; received up into glory;" yet what was the nature of
the manifestation? The Annunciation was secret; the Nativity was secret;
the miraculous Fasting in the wilderness was secret; the Resurrection
secret; the Ascension not far from secret; the abiding Presence secret.
One thing alone was public, and in the eyes of the world,—His Death;
the only event which did not speak of His Divinity, the only event in
which He seemed a sign, not of power, but of weakness. He was crucified
in weakness, but He was not crucified in secret. His humiliation was
proclaimed and manifested all over the earth. When lifted up indeed from
the earth, He displayed His power; He drew all men to Him, but not from
what was seen, but from what was hidden, from what was not known, from
what was matter of faith, from His atoning virtue. As far as seen, He
was, in holy Simeon's words, "a Sign which should be spoken
against." It is not by reason or by sight that we accept and glory
in the sign of the Cross; it is by "laying aside all malice, and
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,"
and "as newborn babes desiring the sincere milk of the word, that we may
grow thereby." "If so be," as St. Peter proceeds,
"ye have tasted that the Lord is {114} gracious; to whom coming, as unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and
precious, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ. Unto you, therefore, that believe, He is precious;
but unto them which be disobedient, the Stone which the builders
disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner." [1 Pet. ii.
1-7.]

Let us not seek then for signs and wonders, or ask for sensible
inward tokens of God's favour; let us not indulge enthusiasm, or become
the slaves of superstition, who are children of God by faith. Faith only
can introduce us to the unseen Presence of God; let us venture to
believe, let us make trial before we see, and the evidence which others
demand before believing, we shall gain more abundantly by believing.
Almighty God is hidden from us; the world does not discover Him to us;
we may go to the right hand and the left, but we find Him not. The
utmost we can do in the way of nature is to feel after Him, who, though
we see Him not, yet is not far from every one of us. "Lo He goeth
by me," says Job, "and I see Him not; He passeth on also, and
I perceive Him not." "O that I knew where I might find Him!
that I might come even to His seat ... Behold, I go forward, and He is
not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; On the left hand
where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He hideth Himself on the
right hand, that I cannot see Him." [Job ix. 11; xxiii. 3, 8, 9.]
This is the veil that is cast {115} over all nations; the want of intercourse
or communion between the soul and Him who made it. We can speak to His
creatures, we cannot speak to Him. Once it was not so; man was created
upright, and then He saw God; he fell, and lost God's image and God's
presence. How must he regain his privilege, but by becoming what he once
was? He lost it by sinning, he must regain it by pureness. And till this
recovery he must accept it on faith; he is allowed to apprehend and
enjoy it by faith. He begins with faith, that he may end with holiness;
he is allowed to begin with faith, because faith is itself of a holy
nature, and the first fruits and earnest of holiness to come. Faith is
the religion of sinners beginning to purify themselves for God, and in
every age, and under every dispensation, the just have lived by faith.
"By faith" Moses "endured, as seeing Him who is
invisible;" for lack of faith Balaam met an Angel in the way and
discerned him not. Thus "we walk by faith, not by sight;" we
"look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are
not seen." We set Him on our right hand, "whom having not
seen, we love: in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of our
faith, even the salvation of our souls."

Opposed to this generous and vigorous faith are carnal blindness and
grossness of heart, of which Scripture speaks so often. Whatever there
is of spiritual light within us, is quenched by indulging our natural
tastes and appetites. Our Lord says, "Ye cannot serve God and
mammon;" He bids us watch and pray, and {116} beware of eating and
drinking, buying and selling, marrying and being given in marriage. We
cannot have our eyes at once on this world and on the other. Those who
live in the sun's glare, can see nothing in twilight; but those whose
eyes are used to the shade, see many things which the others will not
believe they can see. So is it with our souls; the minding of the flesh,
aiming at this world's goods, seeking to rise or succeed in life, gazing
on greatness, rank, distinction, abundance, pomp and show, coveting
wealth, measuring things by wealth, eating and drinking without
restraint, placing no curb upon the passions, exercising no
self-command, living without rule, indolently and weakly following the
first idea which presents itself, the first impulse, the first
temptation, all this makes the heart irreligious. Then it is that men
ask for clearer evidence, and reject the truth; then they say, "How
can these things be?" or "This is a hard saying:" or
"What sign showest Thou?" for "the heart of this
people," in the prophet's words, "is waxed gross, and their
ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they
should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal
them." When He healed men in the days of His flesh, it was indeed
by means of His own sacred Person, His touch, or His breath, or His
voice; but still faith was the condition on the part of the suppliants;
and now too, though He is with us ever so really and fully according to
His promise, yet He requires faith, as before, in order to our
restoration to His favour and to His image. {117}

What a contrast to such thoughts as these is the conduct of the mass
of men! Truly they are "without God in the world,"—that is,
they do not keep before their minds, in any sense, that He is present,
though unseen; they do not even admit that they ought to do so, or try
to do so, or approach even to the idea that there are persons who do
live as in the sight of the Invisible. Go into the general concourse of
men, and what notion is there entertained of such a dependence upon,
such an intercourse with, things unseen, as Scripture prescribes? They
are engaged in their several trades and professions; they are active,
companionable, and friendly; they are unexceptionable as far as the
civilities and kindnesses of mutual intercourse are concerned; but what
are they more? Have they seriousness? Are they under the habitual
influence of religion? Do they sacrifice this life to the next? Is there
any thing which they do or do not, which they would not do, or would not
omit to do, were religion a mere idle tale? Is God in any one of their
thoughts? Do they fear Him? Do they recollect that they are to be
judged? What "marks" have they "of the Lord Jesus?"
How show they that they are waiting for Him who has gone away only to
come back again? What an awful sight does the baptized world present to
any one who retires some few steps out of it! O fearful thought, a Day
will come when every eye shall see Him bodily, whom they will not learn
now to see spiritually! O fearful thought indeed, when all these
indolent and careless men, to say nothing of open scoffers and
profligates, will be gathered together before His Judgment-seat, to
receive their {118} doom once for all! At present they look upon religion as a
dream, and religious men as dreamers; they only think of them as
narrow-minded men, or superstitiously strict, or weak, or fanciful, or
hypocrites, or fanatical, or party-spirited; as persons who profess
much, but are, after all, much the same as other men, governed by the
same weaknesses, passions, and inducements.

O miserable and most dreadful Day of His coming, and who shall abide
it? when those who will not acknowledge the secret glory, shall at
length feel the manifested power of the Lamb; when those who will not
discern His tokens now, but think His ordinances, His Church, His
servants, to be but things of this world, will then see "the Sign
of the Son of man in heaven," and against their will must believe
and tremble. For "then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and
they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory." Let us be wise in time; let us seek Him
"while it is called today;" let us "seek the Lord and His
strength, seek His face evermore." Let us seek Him in His Temple,
and in its ordinances; especially in that most sacred Ordinance in which
He all but reveals to us His heavenly countenance, all but gives us to
touch His hands and feet, and put our hand into His side, that we may
see that it is He Himself, and that we are following no deceitful
vision. He said to Mary, "Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended
to My Father." He is now ascended, therefore we may touch Him. Let
us, as far as is permitted us, approach Him, who walked upon the sea,
and rebuked the wind, and multiplied the {119} loaves, and turned the water
into wine, and made the clay give sight, and entered through the closed
doors, and came and vanished at His will. Let us see Him by faith,
though our eyes are holden, that we know it not. Evermore may He so be
with us, a gracious Lord, whose "garments smell of myrrh, aloes,
and cassia," of spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, and
all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all the chief
spices." [Ps. xlv. 8. Cant. iv. 14.] So may He be with us evermore,
moving our hearts within us, "until the day break and the shadows
flee away."